No problem! If you haven't gone to a competition yet, you should try out the CDC game Solve the Outbreak to get a feel for the event: https://www.cdc.gov/mobile/applications ... b-app.html (obviously, the actual event is going to be harder and isn't going to give you all those helpful clues!)

My reading of the two boring epidemiology textbooks wasn’t for naught after all

I really hope this change means ESs will stop confusing this with microbe mission XP

Oh my god don't get started with that. Proctors must be thinking "hm, the event has the word "disease" in it, so why don't we just make most of the test about the diseases?"

We got pictures of microbes and were asked to identify it. I know this isn’t technically against the rules, but I couldn’t help but go “wait did we walk into microbe?”

Also, the steps to investigating an outbreak in the scioly wiki is different from the one on the cdc website, which one should be used?

Oh you too? So annoying that students were asked to identify vague EMs of cocci and distinguish them (ok one distinguishable as Ebola). This is not Microbes!!! And also not rote-memorization of diseases and symptoms/incubation periods, as stated in in the new handouts. Maybe event supervisors will pay attention...
It is true that in a way it doesn't matter as to the topic, except at Nationals. Nationals always has one of their scenarios on topic (food-borne, environmental), but now maybe topics are no longer a thing, so we can ignore focus on them.

Oh my god don't get started with that. Proctors must be thinking "hm, the event has the word "disease" in it, so why don't we just make most of the test about the diseases?"

We got pictures of microbes and were asked to identify it. I know this isn’t technically against the rules, but I couldn’t help but go “wait did we walk into microbe?”

Also, the steps to investigating an outbreak in the scioly wiki is different from the one on the cdc website, which one should be used?

Oh you too? So annoying that students were asked to identify vague EMs of cocci and distinguish them (ok one distinguishable as Ebola). This is not Microbes!!! And also not rote-memorization of diseases and symptoms/incubation periods, as stated in in the new handouts. Maybe event supervisors will pay attention...
It is true that in a way it doesn't matter as to the topic, except at Nationals. Nationals always has one of their scenarios on topic (food-borne, environmental), but now maybe topics are no longer a thing, so we can ignore focus on them.

I'm personally fine with generallish questions like "Describe the natural history of <disease>" (as long as the disease isn't esoteric, e.g. tuberculosis, salmonellosis, cholera, etc.) or questions like "What kind of agent is <disease> caused by" or even questions like "Give an example of a disease that is foodborne and have an incubation period of under a week" or "What are the three main shapes of bacteria?", but I agree that a question like "Using this image of the bacteria found in the victim's blood, determine what disease the victim has" is really pushing it. This event is about outbreak investigation, not diseases!

Nothing much has really changed. It's just more explicit focus on the actual investigation of an outbreak, prevention, surveillance, etc. Also, there's no topic this year. The rules for this year are just less vague than they were before (although I don't see types of agents on the new rules? I think they'll still be tested though, since that's pretty basic stuff).

So basically just less rote memorization of diseases than before?

If so, go you soinc!!!! Making good decisions like that.

No, these rules say that competitors much "Understand the Natural History and Spectrum of Disease", which might include all of that stuff. How much depth you have to go in would depend on the ES. (Also, listing out a bunch of diseases wasn't a huge part of the event in the first place, at least by the tests I took.) It's worth noting that knowing symptoms and causes of specific diseases wasn't in the original rules either as far as I can see, but it's understandable that ESes would want to test on it.

It was told to the coaches at the SOSI that the new format was intended to be less rote memorization and yes, more of the actual investigation of an outbreak, prevention, surveillance, etc... But as pointed out, it is up to the ES (so let's hope we all read the rules carefully since this is one event that I think has taken a dramatic turn for the better).

All things considered I'm glad they decided to remove topics. The tests rarely pertained to them anyway, and when they did it was seldom done correctly. The 2017 and 2018 Nationals DD had NOT ONE QUESTION in Foodbourne illnesses.

Besides, the "topic" takes away from the true essence of the event, which is not knowing what the disease will be and figuring it out.

I don't know, what do you guys think? I've been dying to hear what other people in DD think about this, being the only veteran in the event at my school. Should the rules revert to topic format or is this a change in the right direction?